Fans of Pixar rejoice — the animation studio behind such popular films as Toy Story , Monsters Inc. , and Pirates of the Caribbean has announced its 3D rendering software will be given away for free for non-commercial use.
The program, called “RenderMan”, was originally developed by Pixar. In recent years, it has experienced increased competition from other animation programs, most notably, Arnold and VRay. Pixar licenses RenderMan out to other studios for use in their films, but to secure a broader base of users, the company thought it best to make it available to the public in general.
In a statement regarding the release, the company said that the free version of RenderMan would be “without any functional limitations, watermarking, or time restrictions.”
“Non-commercial RenderMan will be freely available for students, institutions, researchers, developers, and for personal use,” it added.
Lee Danski, the technical director of Escape Technology, which sells RenderMan to virtual effects studios in London, told the BBC that he welcomed the move, adding that it will likely lead to the software being more widely adopted as a result.
“In the last 18 months, a lot of new players have entered the marketplace,” the BBC quoted him saying. “They got there quicker than Pixar, but this is Pixar's answer — and it's quite an answer.”
The new, free RenderMan is expected to be ready prior to the Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques conference, which is scheduled for this August.
Story via BBC
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